Depression, Dreams Psychodynamic Therapy

Depression, Dreams

Depression is the most common psychological condition, and most people experience it at one point or another in their lives.

Symptoms of depression include lethargy, low self esteem, a feeling of sadness, helplessness, hopelessness, anxiety, dysphoric mood and even suicidal thoughts. People who are depressed usually feel a lack of energy and a lack of pleasure and they may be agitated or irritable.

Since there are so many causes to depression, which boils down to a natural response to life experiences (a defence mechanism), each situation warrants a thorough investigation into the exact catalyst. Depending on what causes a specific incidence of depression, a treatment plan can be developed to help the individual deal with his or her emotions.

Some people are predisposed to depression in that it can run in the family. In many cases, it is learned when someone is constantly exposed to it.

Counselling can help a person to adapt to life changes that are causing grief, particularly with bereavement or marital issues. Systemic therapy is helpful in family therapy, where the efforts of the whole family can help the individual. Psychodynamic therapy helps a person to find the hidden psychological defences that cause problems to manifest. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on the problem at hand, providing solutions to day-to-day issues and finding ways to restructure negative thought patterns.

If you are looking for a counsellor or psychologist who has training and experience in depression counselling you may want to search the directory to find a professional whose approach will suit you best.

Dreams can help a therapist to gain significant insight into your psyche, and to help you find strategies to heal emotional or psychological problems. A person's verbal interpretation of a dream is used to bring about healing. Famous psychologists, such as the late Freud and later on Carl Jung used dream interpretation many years ago and wrote insightful theories about their work too.

The trigger that brought about the dream is not as important to psychologists and counsellors who practice dream analysis, but rather the dreamer's interpretation. When you see a counsellor who offers dream analysis, he or she will derive meaning from your interpretations of dream elements to get insight into your psyche.

The therapist will advise you to record your dreams and will then talk you through the analytical process. This process will help you confront your conscious and subconscious dilemmas as a way to create a more creative and healthy life.

Dream therapy allows you to derive meaning from your dream images to gain insight into your psyche. While it is useful to find out unconscious or subconscious dilemmas, it can also help you to find ways to handle some of the life situations you are facing. Dream therapy allows you to confront dilemmas and find ways to deal with those situations.

Dream interpretation can help you to become emotionally balanced and healthy through finding correlations and connections between the images in your dreams and in real life. It will help you to open your mind to past experiences that have made you the person you are today.

If you are looking for a counsellor or psychologist who offers professional dream therapies or counselling to address the issues in your dreams, you may want to search the directory to find a professional whose approach will suit you best.

Psychodynamic Therapy

Psychodynamic Therapy can help clients to become aware of feelings of vulnerability that have been repressed from their conscious awareness. This approach is based on the theory that every person has an unconscious which stores vulnerable and painful emotions that are too deep to handle on a conscious level.

Psychodynamic Therapy addresses the defense mechanisms that  have been developed. Defense mechanisms can sometimes do more harm than good. By resolving vulnerabilities such as repression and denial, painful emotions and memories can be processed in order for the defense mechanisms to be resolved, or reduced.

Therapists use a range of core principles in Psychodynamic Therapy, based on the client's needs. It will help the client to gain perspective while recognizing behaviours, actions, responses and character traits that can be transformed.

If you are looking for a therapist who offers Psychodynamic Therapy, please browse our list of practitioners below..

Note: You may narrow your search by selecting more than one filter below.

Geraldine Brooks

Ph.D., R.Psych
My counselling is holistic, informed by scientific advances in psychology and neurology as well as Transpersonal, Jungian (the theories of C.G. Jung) and Energy Psychologies. I address a wide variety of client concerns... Read more

Bradley Murray

Ph.D., RCC
    • Online booking
Dr. Murray is a psychoanalyst and Registered Clinical Counsellor based in North Vancouver who has been in private practice for 11 years. He offers consultations and therapy for individuals living on the North Shore and... Read more

Emma Ellison

MCP, RCC
Transpersonal Psychotherapist Doula & Traditional Birth Attendant Birth Integration & Spiritual Care Practitioner My approach Just as a seed will grow into a plant, and a plant will seek water and... Read more